Can you become or stay morbidly obese in prison?

[danceswithcats]

@Little Nemo

A prisoner is a ward of the state. He’s the legal equivalent of a minor. A fifteen year old can’t get an operation just because he can pay for it - he has to convince his parents it’s a good idea.

Likewise, if my fifteen year old child was obese, I’d restrict their caloric intake, introduce weight management therapy, until they were back at a healthy weight for their height.

[Little_Nemo]

Do you think you’d succeed in getting a teenager to lose weight if they didn’t want to?

[Little_Nemo]

I know of a guard downstate in Illinois and the guard and administration’s first goal, according to him, is to eliminate violence and keep the prisoners busy. This means giving them simple things like food, and TV if it keeps their mind busy they don’t fight.

This is why guards often look the other way on drugs too, it keeps the prisoners sedated.

Drugs don’t keep things quiet. The drugs themselves may keep some users sedated but the drug business makes things interesting and exciting. Which we hate.

[Projammer]

I recall a story several years ago about a death row (by hanging) inmate who deliberately became obese to the point where there was a real possibility of decapition if he were executed. The reason being that he could argue that the hanging would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

My Google-fu is weak tonight so I can’t provide a cite. All I’m getting is links to Mitchell Rupe who successfully made the same argument. He was 409 pounds.

[Annie-Xmas]

Allen Lee Davis, who was executed for killing a pregnant woman and her two daughters, was a very overweight guy. A controversy was sparked when the electric chair gave me a nosebleed. I’m not linking to the photos of him after his death, but they are easy to find and pretty gruesome.

NOT as gruesome as the photos of his victims, you understand.

[SCSimmons]

@Annie-Xmas

A controversy was sparked when the electric chair gave me a nosebleed.

Who? :eek:

[Cervaise]

@Projammer

I recall a story several years ago about a death row (by hanging) inmate who deliberately became obese to the point where there was a real possibility of decapition if he were executed. The reason being that he could argue that the hanging would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

My Google-fu is weak tonight so I can’t provide a cite. All I’m getting is links to Mitchell Rupe who successfully made the same argument. He was 409 pounds.

That’s who you’re thinking of. He’s a rather famous case here in Washington State.

[Jackknifed_Juggernaut]

Related question: Many people who’ve visited prisons for various reasons mention the massive muscularity of some prisoners, to the point that they are compared to body builders. TV and movies also seem to suggest that many prisoners are spectacularly muscular. Clearly, they have access to weights and lots of time on their hands. But how do they access the calories and protein (and other legal and illegal supplements) required to maintain such bodies?

[Little_Nemo]

Related question: Many people who’ve visited prisons for various reasons mention the massive muscularity of some prisoners, to the point that they are compared to body builders. TV and movies also seem to suggest that many prisoners are spectacularly muscular. Clearly, they have access to weights and lots of time on their hands. But how do they access the calories and protein (and other legal and illegal supplements) required to maintain such bodies?

Mail order covers the legal ones. The illegal ones get smuggled in by various means just like other illegal drugs.

[myskepticsight]

And honestly, if you’ve got nothing else to do, you can work out while you’re on the yard with the weights provided, and I’ve seen shows like “Lockup” where inmates work out in their cells too - pushups, using each other for resistance in workouts, etc. If you work out hours a day and eat all you can, you can get stacked. Not like necessarily super-lean and stacked, but normal guy stacked.